Hot Topics:

Margot Adler, longtime participant in CU's Conference on World Affairs, dies at 68

NPR correspondent, author passes away after battle with cancer

By Sarah Kuta, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
07/28/2014 11:35:34 AM MDT

Updated:
07/29/2014 05:44:04 AM MDT

Longtime Conference on World Affairs attendee Margot Adler died today at age 68. Seen here in 2001, she was a guest speaker of the Conference on World Affairs Athenaeum at Old Main on the CU campus. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

Adler

Margot Adler, a longtime participant in the University of Colorado's Conference on World Affairs and a correspondent for National Public Radio, died Monday morning at her home in New York City. She was 68.

Adler attended 22 conferences starting in 1979. Conference officials said they were notified by her family that Adler passed away after a battle with endometrial cancer that had metastasized to several parts of her body.

A person who identified himself as Adler's son Alex posted on Adler's personal Facebook page Monday morning and wrote that her condition had been getting "much worse" over the past few months.

Most recently, Adler spoke on panels at the Conference on World Affairs this past April on topics ranging from science fiction to the best scandals ever to zombies and vampires. She also spoke on a panel titled "In Touch with Illness."

"It's just that she was an omnivore when it comes to knowledge and interests, and so the conference was just a perfect venue for her passions," said former conference director Jim Palmer, who retired this year. "She had a huge following at the conference. She was very witty and just could be outrageous in a wonderful sort of way, so it's a loss. It's a very grievous loss."

Starting in 1980, Adler stayed in Boulder at the home of Jane Butcher, current conference community chair, for every Conference on World Affairs she attended. Butcher has been involved with the event for 35 years.

Advertisement

"We just immediately had a rapport," Butcher said. "And my husband loved her husband and talked physics and biology with him. And Margot and I talked about everything under the sun."

Adler's husband, John Lowell Gliedman, died in 2010 at age 67 from stomach cancer. She leaves behind a son, Alex Dylan Gliedman-Adler, 23.

Adler was a well known New York correspondent for National Public Radio and the author of several books, including "Drawing Down the Moon," a study of contemporary nature religions, and "Vampires Are Us," which chronicles the popularity of vampires in society.

According to an NPR statement, Adler started there as a general assignment reporter in 1979.

"Margot in many ways exemplified what draws people to NPR," wrote Margaret Low Smith, NPR's senior vice president for news. "Her reporting was singular and her voice distinct. There was almost no story that Margot couldn't tell. And she loved to find stories that no one else would, including the occasional story about trees in Central Park. ... We will miss her terribly."

Butcher said she learned many new things from her friend, who covered the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, among many other topics and events.

"She was a true intellectual who read widely and was interested in everything," Butcher said. "I learned countless things from Margot."

Investigate journalist and photographer Chip Berlet said Adler was not only a versatile reporter, but an ethical one who felt good journalism was important for democracy.

Berlet, who met Adler first as a reporter and then later spent time with her at the Conference on World Affairs, said even though he was a Christian and she was a pagan, they found common ground to joke and talk about their beliefs.

Adler was a Wiccan priestess and was considered by many to be a leader in the pagan community.

"She was very committed to her own ideas and very open to other peoples' ideas at the same time," he said.

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story